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Husbandry and Basic CareGeneral stuff about keeping and maintaining cornsnakes in captivity.

Just come back from holiday to find my corn's heat lamp blown. This is the second time this has happened (not consecutively though). When we go away, we turn off the hot water and, in winter, keep the central heating thermostsat at around 15°C. With the house cooling down and not being lived in the lamp is obviously working overtime (it runs on it's own thermostat). Luckily I always have a spare so was able to swap it out straight away, but still don't like the idea of how long he may have been left cold.

Should I stop being so selfish and keep the central heating on for him or are there other ways to support the bulb? I have a heat mat left over from when he was little which I can side under the viv, but I am a little concerned about fire risks - what do people think?

Thanks

(PS I realise I may get flamed for leaving him alone when we go away - we are never away for longer than a week and I always make sure he eats before we leave as he eats every 2-3 weeks and he has plenty of water. We used to get someone to look after him when he was little.)

Not going to flame you at all. Personally, I would use the heat mat on a thermostat. As long as there is natural light for him during the day, he doesn't need a light and there are two sides as to whether or not snakes can see a red heat light at night, if that's what you're using at night.
I've ditched the heat lights for a ceramic bulb that I use at night, set on a dusk to dawn outlet.
As for the fire risk, if the mat is on a thermostat, it shouldn't get hot enough to melt or burn anything.

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